Hobby & craft embroidery designs
Sewing machines and yarn, guitars and music notes, book stacks, game controllers, cameras and suitcases: these hobby & craft embroidery designs celebrate the things people love to do in their spare time. Free and premium hobby motifs both download in eight formats, including PES for Brother, JEF for Janome and VP3 for Pfaff.
Flat canvas is the easiest thing to hoop, so a project bag or a tote is a good first home for a hobby motif.
2 designs
- Premium
- Premium
Six hobbies in one style
- Sewing and crafts: sewing machines, scissors, thread spools, pincushions and yarn.
- Music: guitars, notes, headphones and pianos.
- Books and reading: book stacks, open books and reading glasses.
- Gaming: controllers, pixel hearts and arcade icons, with no game brands or characters.
- Photography and art: cameras, paint palettes and brushes.
- Wanderlust and travel gear: suitcases, passports, maps and globes.
Each motif uses flat thread colors and a dark outline, so a guitar and a camera stitched on the same bag look like a pair.
Where hobby motifs work best
Hobby designs fit the gear people carry to their hobby: a knitting project bag, a library tote, a camera bag panel or a gaming hoodie. They also make good club shirts for a book club, a choir or a board game group, and small thank-you gifts for a music or art teacher.
Hobby gifts suit birthdays and the holiday season. If you stitch several, start in October so the last one is not rushed.
Stabilizers for bags, hoodies and soft pillows
- Canvas totes and project bags: a tear-away, or a cut-away if the bag will be washed often.
- Hoodies and T-shirts: a cut-away, with a no-show mesh on thin knits, and a ballpoint needle.
- Minky or fleece, such as reading pillows and travel neck pillows: a water-soluble topping on top and a cut-away below.
- Quilted items such as book sleeves: stitch the outer fabric before you add the batting.
Sizes for small gear and big bags
A 70 mm controller fits a pencil case or the side of a cap, and the 95 mm version sits well on a hoodie chest. Take the 125 mm guitar or book stack for the front of a tote bag; it needs a 5x7 hoop. These hobby and craft embroidery designs look best with some empty fabric around them, so leave a margin of at least 2 cm (0.8 in) to any seam.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell items made with hobby designs at a craft fair?
Craft fair sales need a plan with a commercial license. Free designs carry a personal-use license, so they do not cover project bags, club shirts or gifts you sell. With a commercial plan, you can sell stitched items at fairs, markets or online; pricing lists the plans.
Can I add a name to a hobby design, like on a project bag?
Yes. Type the name in the monogram and lettering maker, download it in your machine's format and stitch it next to the motif in the same hooping. Short names in a simple script fit under a yarn ball or a camera; leave a small gap so the letters do not touch the outline.
My hobby is not listed here. Can I get a design for it?
Yes. Describe the motif to the AI design generator, for example a pottery wheel, a bowling pin or a beehive, and it creates an embroidery file for your machine. One clear subject with a few colors gives the cleanest stitch-out.